News of her death in Los Angeles on Saturday was confirmed by her publicist. She had metastatic breast cancer.

The critic, art historian and artist was known for the colorful, oversized public sculptures she created in collaboration with her husband, Claes Oldenburg.

Almost every piece took a prosaic or playful object of everyday life and recreated it on a gargantuan scale. The "Shuttlecocks" were installed at the Nelson in 1994. They first generated the sort of controversy that often greets unconventional public art, but have largely been embraced by the community as one of Kansas City’s iconic sights.